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First Build: Gaming and Streaming

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Here are my parts from PC Part Picker, I have done a lot of research and I think this is essentially my dream computer with a ~$1500 budget. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/bwB6
There is one thing I would change, which was the H100 to the Thermaltake Water 2.0 Extreme (W20E), since I hear it is better, but they don't have it on the site.

I plan on building this for gaming (or school haha) in early September. As of right now, I will only be playing at a resolution of 1920x1080, as I will be using my Plasma TV.

I would like your opinions and recommendations, I do plan to OC and eventually add a second SSD and graphics card, another 2 slots of ram, and more fans (maybe even upgrade to custom water cooling if I feel confident enough).

Let me explain my choices however.

Intel i5 3570k: Ivy Bridge is fully compatible with PCI 3.0, I know we aren't even close to maxing PCI 2.1, but I wanted to somewhat future proof it.

H100 or W20E: Ivy Bridge runs hot, especially if OC'ing, and I'm not confident in my ability to build a custom water cooling system, especially on my first build.

Zotac GTX 670: Tom's hardware review, it was the strongest of the cards. Can't really justify the $100 more at this time, but I can be persuaded if there are relevant deals or if the price will drop enough by September.

Asus P8Z77-V Pro: PCI 3.0, wifi, 4 ram slots, usb 3.0. I know wifi and gaming, bad blah blah. My dorm doesn't have any ethernet ports, just wifi.

Corsair Vengeance: It seems reliable and well recommended. Good speeds, relatively good cost.

Optical Drive: Don't need blu ray, got a ps3. DVD burner it is.

Cooler Master Haf 942 X: Big enough for later upgrades, like the design and sheer amount of fans. Comes with 4, can easily add another 4 (including H100 or W20E) in case I decided to OC anything besides CPU.

PSU: I know it seems big, but I used newegg's psu calculator for my potential upgrades in the future. That included an extra ssd, 4x4gb ddr3 ram, and a second gtx 680 (they didn't have 670) and I wanted to leave room to OC everything, just in case.

So...I think that's it? Please tell me what you think! I'd love to hear your opinions and recommendations. I feel like everything's as perfect as I can afford. Sure I'd like a 680 or 690, but I need to be realistic.
Another quick question, can the HDMI's on the back of the 670 output sound on the same cable?

I also have a post on another forum here about Air Flow, any help would be appreciated!
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277136-29-flow-sugges...

More about : build gaming streaming

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For the most part I agree with the parts that you selected , the thing I will caution you on is the HAF-X case. I have that case and was surprised when I got it a to how big it is , this thing is huge and it does have an enormouse inside work area and places to put everything. It has a speciial video card shroud that covers the ends of the video card and there is a place to put a 120mm or 150mm fan so that it blows directly at the ends of the cards. Also the fans are huge 230mm in the front and 200mm on the side and top. Just make sure you have space for this monster.


SeaSonic M12II 750 SS-750AM 750W ATX12V / EPS12V SLI Ready 80 PLUS BRONZE Certified Modular Active PFC Semi-modular Power Supply
$119.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

EVGA 02G-P4-2678-KR GeForce GTX 670 FTW 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card
$409.99 and a $10 rebate makes the final price $399.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

CORSAIR H70 Core High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler
$79.99 and a $10 rebate makes the final price $69.99.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

These are the changes that I would make and two of them will save you a total of about $70.
The power supply is a top quality brand and is much better than what you had selected. You also don't need any more than 750w even for two 670's , so you save monet here.
The video card is also a top quality brand and the FTW model which is the better model from Evga and is the same price as the Zotac. If given a choice between the two brands I will choose Evga everytime.
The cooler listed is sufficient to cool the cpu that you have , the Ivy Brigde don't overclock that well so you won't be reaching the same top speeds as with a Sandy Bridge. The main purpose of the Ivy Bridge was the low TDP (77w) and that's why a lot of people didn't understand why it's not the same overclocker as the Sandy Bridge , Intel never intended it to be that and it intended it to be the low power consumption cpu that was the other side of what Sandy Bridge is.
The HDMI on the video card will output sound.
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I whole heartedly agree with the EVGA 670 FTW version, only $10 dollars more.
Definitely worth it in my view.

So given that it is an ivy bridge, it doesn't overclock well because of its draw power or because it overheats a lot more? I was under the impression of the latter.

I do really want the PCI 3.0 (even though it's unrealistic) and from what I read only Ivy Bridge and Sandy bridge-E can do that.
Was I mistaken?
Are there any sandy bridge-e for about that price? If not will it be possible to get my The 3570k to 4.5ghz? Or higher based on the 4 fans in the HAF X and the additional 2 in the radiator and potentially another 200mm on top?
I do have the space and I definitely want the room for future upgrades.

May I ask how you have your fans set up, like how many/what did you put in and what is intake and what is exhaust? I didn't realize another fan could be placed by the cards. Do you mean by the bays or by the rear?

I have a thread on airflow here if you'd prefer to respond there.
http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/277136-29-flow-sugges...

The video cards in that case will not be an issue to cool because of the setup that case has. It not only has the shroud I mentioned it also has a special braket that can fit an 80mm fan and that can be positioned to blow directly onto the video cards from the side. I have water cooling and as such the fans are only for general circulation. You can have the 230mmin the front blowing in and the 200mm an the side blowing in and then two 200mm at the top blowing out and a 120mm at the rear blowing out and all of these can be controlled with a front bay fan controller. You main issue will be to cool the cpu and tha Corsair hydro cooler should do the job and you will have your work cut out for you to get a 4.5ghz overclock
The good thing about that case is that you can mount the radiator either at the top or at the rear of the case.
The Sandy Bridge-E might not be an option because it's more expensive and the MBs are also.

How would I mount it to the back of the case? I've searched around and found nothing on that. Do you mean inside or outside the case?

And is overclocking a ivy bridge hard due to the draw power or due to the heat?

All of the fans and attachments are on the inside of the case and because I use wated cooling I did not try to set them all up at once but I did try out the special bracket and it's defietly something you can use however the video card shroud would be more beeficial and I think work a lot better.
The Ivy Bridge is hard to overclock because of the heat it gives off when it reaches a certian clock ghz.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ivy-bridge-overcloc...

The HAF-X case will fit a rx360 radiator at the top of the inside of the case and you can have the two 200mm fans pulling air and three radiator fans pushing air and that would cool a video card , cpu and the ram if you chose to. You could get a dual front bay resivoir/pump combo and run one loop to include those parts and the good thing about it is that you can start out with just the video card and then add the cpu and then ram.

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_p...

http://www.performance-pcs.com/catalog/index.php?main_p...
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